E T Consultant – Health Specialist/GFF-Liaison Officer, Afghanistan – Health/Nutrition/Population At World Bank

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Regional Context
The South Asia Region (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) is at a crucial stage of development. Rapid economic growth, driven by urbanization and demographic dividend, has brought down poverty rates, but severe forms of exclusion and disparities based on ethnicity, caste, and gender remain. Rapid growth has also come with congestion and pollution in cities. South Asia is more than other regions affected by changes in temperature and extreme weather event. Additional challenges are that South Asia is underperforming in exports, has large informal sectors and low female labor force participation rates. All these challenges must be addressed to secure rapid growth in coming decades. 

Private sector led growth, focused on investments in infrastructure, energy, logistics and cities are essential to generate the jobs needed to employ South Asia’s sizeable youth population. At the same time, the region needs to continue building human capital so that South Asia’s population is well equipped for the jobs of the future.

The World Bank in South Asia: https://www.worldbank.org/en/region/sar

Human Development Practice Group (HD PG) 

The World Bank Group (WBG) is the largest provider of development finance and solutions for human development working with high-income, middle-income, and low-income countries to develop country-tailored solutions for human development (HD) under the themes of education, health, social protection, jobs and gender. The HD PG coordinates with other Practice Groups to ensure a coordinated and integrated approach to development challenges, and through the World Bank Regional Units is expected to deliver the strongest and most pertinent support to our client countries.

Country background

Since the August 2021 fall of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Afghanistan faces continued economic and poverty crisis conditions amid a difficult political environment. While the economy has recently stabilized, poverty conditions remain dire in the context of depressed activity, largescale unemployment and continued constraints to banking sector functionality. Conditions for Afghans, particularly women and girls, and prospects for broader international support have been worsened by a series of restrictions announced by the interim administration. 

The Bank’s Afghanistan Futures analytics program provide public-good, data-driven analysis that helps drive the international dialogue on Afghanistan and informs global Fragility, Conflict and Violence (FCV) knowledge.
The World Bank and the GFF Secretariat are seeking to retain the services of a Health Specialist/GFF Liaison Officer who will support the development and maintenance of a fit-for-purpose country partnership arrangement for the operationalization of the HSTS in the fast-evolving context of Afghanistan, notably through the optimal functioning of the H-STWG.  Moreover, the Health Specialist will provide day-to-day support to the World Bank task team in undertaking technical tasks as needed.

Role & Responsibilities:

The aim of this role is to support health-sector partners, and in particular, the World Bank to implement an effective planning and coordination process in order to achieve sustainable RMNCAH-N and health systems strengthening results in the unique political context of Afghanistan. The main focus of the Liaison Officer is to enable effective and efficient participation of all relevant stakeholders in the process to maximize opportunities for alignment, coordination, and to improve health sector efficiency. As the HSTS  has been recently validated, the Liaison Officer will be responsible for:

• Supporting operations of the Health Emergency Response (HER) project coordination committee and health development partners forum to foster alignment and technical collaboration for Afghanistan’s health sector ‘
• Ensure that all relevant stakeholders are well informed about GFF processes including the implementation of aligned activities in the health sector and that their participation in the process is facilitated in a transparent and timely manner;
• Maintain a stakeholder mapping (looking at technical and financial resources)
• Helping to organize and support the implementation of the various pieces of analytical work that will be required for the HSTS implementation and course correction, including supporting missions as needed;
• Liaising with the GFF Secretariat Focal Point for Afghanistan to identify technical expertise that may not be available in-country for implementation of the HSTS
• Liaising with stakeholders and constituencies ahead of and during HSTS reviews, proactively communicating in a transparent and timely manner;
• Supporting the integration of costing and budgeting shifts into the HER project to improve allocative and technical efficiency and identify opportunities to expand fiscal space to progressively address financing gaps;
• Identifying high-level champions that could provide political support for the HSTS
• Supporting the GFF Focal point in developing an implementation plan, which lists the sub-activities and details which actors (UN, humanitarian partners) have committed to carrying those out, and tracking the advancement of the implementation plan.
• Monitoring progress of activities of the HSTS on a quarterly basis, through development and regular updating of a dashboard and communication with relevant actors (UN, SP, humanitarian partners).
• Supporting World Bank efforts to engage with the H-STWG, ARTF and other stakeholders as needed to ensure alignment and secure additional financing for priorities over time.
• Working with partners to monitor expenditures with respect to HSTS priorities (and identifying technical assistance needs to support the institutionalization of these processes)
• Supporting UN Technical Agencies to finalize the HSTS Results Framework and updating it when necessary.
• Support to the midterm review of the HSTS
• Any other activity on which the HER Task Team requires the LO’s support and skills
• The HSAHN Practice Manager may request additional tasks to be carried out on behalf of the unit in consultation with the Task Team and the GFF Focal Point for Afghanistan.

Selection Criteria

• Master’s Degree or other health/medical degree in a field revenant to the work of the GFF and HNP (e.g., Public Health, Public Administration, Economics, Health Economics or any other relevant field)
• At least 5 years of work experience in health systems strengthening or other areas that requires strong results-focus and coordination of stakeholders
• Experience working in and on fragile, conflict and violence (FCV) settings
• Experience in identification of, outreach to, regular engagement and communication with key stakeholders from government, donors, development partners, civil society, youth and private sector
• Ability to work effectively in supporting the coordination of high-level donor, development partner, civil society and private sector representatives
• Experience with donor and development partner coordination
• Proven strong leadership skills, including ability to support leadership and convening processes
• Attention to detail and strong ability to track work programs and ensure follow-up as needed
• Basic ability to analyze data in order to identify outliers, develop data-driven plans of action, etc.
• Knowledge of allied sector systems in the country (e.g., health, social protection, education, etc.)
• Strong communication skills, written and verbal (in English and local working language)
• Experience working in reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health/nutrition would be an asset
• Knowledge of IT programs used for data collection, analysis and visualization would be an asset

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